Epilogue:

Nothing is as it seems. Neo felt that something was out of synch in the movie The Matrix. The rhythms that connected life seemed askew and that was the nagging feeling, the spider sense tingling, which said to Neo that he was not truly in control. Humans feel this as well. It is not an ongoing, constant, gut feeling but one that is experienced when rhythms are not synched up or within tolerances.

Consider this, you cannot trust the evidence of your senses. You can't trust the evidence of your feelings - your internal perceptions - either.  It all depends heavily on such things as what you have been told about something in advance, what is fashionable at the time, whether they are part of your culture and ethnic group, and what power relationships exist between them and you. None of which has anything to do with reality. Like "real pain" and "real illness" or disability, the specifications depend upon the "perceiving" individual. What we have to deal with in our daily lives in the evidence gathered by our perceptions.

We need to keep our perceptions as accurate as possible, by being willing to perceive things with an open mind and being careful to pay attention to things so that they will yield adequate data. Remember that evidence of our personal perceptions may be drastically different from the evidence of some other persons.

Realize that our body-mind reacts to what it "perceives" as real, whether it is "out there" or not. The mechanisms we use to process information from both internal and external environments are our sensory systems - sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste.

Life and the Universe are connected and our efforts in martial systems are to re-introduce that which industrial society has removed. A re-introduction of the systems that provide connections and synchronistic rhythms that provides us the cohesion to relate and survive. This is a complex system that runs on autopilot. It is a matrix of nature, the Universe, which is the essence of life. Even the string theorists see an energy connection, like tiny microscopic strings that connect every atom of every thing into one whole syntonic force - let the force guide you my padawan.

Before I continue I want to express through a quote from the author, Edward T. Hall, something that may give a sense to why this understanding of the terse tome of the goku-i is so important.

"Human beings are such an incredibly rich and talented species with potentials beyond anything it is possible to contemplate that from the perspective of this writer it would appear that our greatest task, our most important task, and our most strategic task is to learn as much as possible about ourselves. ... My point is that as humans learn more about their incredible sensitivity, their boundless talents, and manifold diversity, they should begin to appreciate not only themselves but also others." - Edward T. Hall, The Dance of Life: God is in the Details, pg 204-5.

In my pursuit toward knowledge and understanding I have come to a conclusion that the great tai chi that is the singular, the one unitary energy of all things can be explained as splitting into the yin-yang as follows:

The point of the splitting of the unitary energy (great tai chi) of life (into yin-yang) is as follows: first, they remain continuous and intertwined, the two energies (yin-yang) preserve their endless harmony and are always one in their dialectical interaction, yet distinctly two.

Judgment is the structure of movement. Judgment comes from knowledge and understanding to the dialectic nature of the universe. Understand that the physical/mechanical/inanimate is yang while instinctive/mental-spiritual/animate instincts are yin. To know this and to understand is to achieve the ability to provide judgment in the nature of the universe.

All things began as one and became two while the effort to reach enlightenment of humans is to achieve the ability to bring the two back to the one, a holistic meaning of life for the yin is the yang is the yin is the yang in a separate yet unitary movement which is judgment and creates the structure of life, the universe, man, and heaven and earth.

Why is man's blood red then blue then red again, the unitary function of a dualistic monism action called life. Blood circulates like the heavens of both Sun and Moon. Where the sun is blood red and the moon is a cool blue the blood with its life giving oxygen travels like the sun and moon giving life to the person and then in the extreme changes to yang or blue with the bodies poisonous wastes returns to the heart to exchange the waste into oxygen, the extreme that is yin.

The lungs through our inhalation/exhalation exchanges poisons into life feeding oxygen to the blood that circulates like the sun and moon. The inhalation is like drinking while the exhalation is similar to spitting so it is also hard or soft with changes that reflect the way of the universe.

To understand the complexities of the ken-po goku-i is to understand the universe, the great tai chi and the yin-yang so that life and all its things can be balanced so as to not disrupt the cycle like a heavy weight to one side or the other to fall heavily. 

For the eyes and ears to differentiate between good and bad to the exclusivity of one or the other is to unbalance the mind causing it to fall as if pulled down to earth by a great weight. To feel the heat or cold to the exclusivity of one or the other is to also cause an unbalancing of those things that require the dualistic relations of yin-yang.

ONE TRUE PURPOSE

I have said that finding balance is our true purpose in life. Is this true? Is this just another way for our genes, DNA, to control us? Is this merely a means to wear plumage to attract a mate so we can reproduce? How does this equate to our other basic instinct for life, to survive? What is our true purpose here and why do we spend such a huge amount of time and effort seeking what appears to be plumage when our focus should be on personal survival and reproduction of the strongest and fittest for mankind's survival?

These questions and others are those we ask ourselves and this is what I perceive to be "philosophy or philosophical thought." Let me follow with some quotes and comments in support of this issue. It should come clear as to what this would mean to our practice. It is that which provides us the questions we ask and the answers we receive that balance our lives so we may survive and procreate.

QUOTES

"Brains can observe local conditions and then perform complex calculations in order to figure out a good response to those conditions."

Is this what we learn through martial arts, true martial arts?

Does this actually equate to our basic instinct for survival?

Then do we use the plumage of the art to give meaning to what would be boring and tedious so we may continue practice and training of those nature given survival and procreation instincts that allow humans to continue?

Is this why we suffer so?

The plumage of our daily dream world, self-deception in the name of survival and lineage, where plumage attracts others of like minded beliefs that promote a stronger, fitter and powerful tribe?

Is our need to promote all the plumage of our perceived world of martial arts so that we may remain active and interested so that survival continues?

If we suddenly realized that our genes/DNA have us in there Matrix would we stop the development of plumage and then wither and die out? Is this the true goals of philosophies?

"Smaller brains do quite well with just a list of condition-action pairs."

Condition-action pairs where a specific condition occurs and through evolution the action taken is the one best suited to achieve survival. Much like the freeze. Where we as human beings have to deal with the ability to reason so we can continue to evolve regarding survival instincts so that those who are the most suited to survive procreate to create a stronger enduring tribe.

"A mind that is aware of itself, that has goals for itself, that has beliefs about you, the world around you, and the ways actions translate into outcomes, that can reason abstractly about all these, and that chooses actions based on this reasoning. Appearances can be deceiving, however!"

We have our own realities. When realities are not tuned to one another we have crises and conflicts. Our realities are created first by our genes/DNA. They are the instincts we carry forward from the time when our brains did not reason beyond the condition-action pairing of survival and procreation. A survival instinct is to join a larger group, a tribe, which has similar needs and desires so we may adjust to that tribe where survival is also determined by that cohesiveness along with individual survival instincts.

"Why do humans have such big brains, which are so devoted to a dream world of abstract ideas and feelings that have so little direct relation to personal survival and reproduction?"

The "dream world of abstract ideas and feelings" does describe the great lengths we humans go to in its creation and then subsequent dogmatic belief to a point where we go to war to remain within that paradigm even when it becomes apparent that another way is superior - cognizant dissonance. In the martial arts world does this equal patches, belts, certifications, testing, status, proficiency hierarchy or status hierarchy or power hierarchy, etc.?

"Students often say that they love learning, and wish they could get into better schools; in fact, anyone can get a free education from the very best schools by sitting in on classes and forgoing the credentials. Professors say they choose their career for the ideas, but their conversations are mostly office gossip, and their output drops precipitously once they get tenure."

Ah, achieve black belt status and fall into - the stand around with an attitude of higher status, power, and dominance over lesser belts - attitude? An assumption that one is entitled now because they have reached a black belt level, keen sense of entitlement - a distance far from humility. Humility also fits this model too. Another dream world mind set promoting more plumage of a different kind. Do you feel something is wrong - splinter of the mind.

"Overall, we are basically self-deceived. We care more that others see us doing these things, and that they are impressed more than we care to admit. We care less about these things as our mating opportunities are reduced with age."

Self-perception must entail a modicum of truth or it remains self-deception. With the brain's modus operandi how can we tell - our brains are our self-imposed matrix - when we actually perceive truth and then we ask ourselves, whose truth? It is the hopes of this goku-i to set one on a path that will lead them in a unique fashion toward that truth.

Good Luck and pleasant journeys.